Modern cultivators, or row crop planters cut spaced furrows, deposit seeds in those furrows and then close the furrows over the deposited seeds. In many instances, row crop planters will deposit small amounts of low rate starter fertilizer adjacent to the seeds to promote germination and initial growth. The essential objects of a row crop planter are to position seeds with uniform spacing, depth and access to a starter fertilizer. When these conditions occur, the crop plants will be more likely to emerge at the same time and initially grow at a uniform rate. Uniform emergence and uniform initial growth increases the likelihood that individual plants will tend to produce similar yields which will result in an optimum overall yield for the crop. The skilled reader will appreciate that modern cultivators are extensive, covering many rows, and they must move rapidly across a field in order to be productive. Thus, in very rapid succession, a furrow is opened and smoothed, a liquid low rate starter fertilizer is applied, a seed is deposited and the furrow is closed around the seed simultaneously across dozens of rows for hundreds or maybe even thousands of seeds per minute. And, still further, this is now often done in the highly challenging no-till or low-till context wherein forming a smooth, uniform planting furrow may be difficult. One skilled in the art will recall that in the industry, decades of research and development have been directed toward accomplishing these objects for optimum results.
Present row crop planters have a plurality of planting units. Each planting unit typically includes a pair of closely spaced rotating discs, a fertilizer tube, a seed tube and various rotating elements for closing the planting furrow. Some present row crop planting units include a v-slice insert which is placed between the discs. The discs are closely spaced apart transversely and have beveled edges which are turned toward the opposite disc. If the forward most portion of the each disc is understood as the nine o'clock position, then the discs nearly touch a approximately the eight o'clock position and diverge most at approximately the opposite two o'clock position. As the discs move through the soil, they break up the soil and create a furrow. A typical v-slice insert, when viewed from the side is shaped much like the prow of a boat. When viewed from the front, a v-slice insert resembles a thick, heavy blade. The forward end of the v-slice insert is located between the diverging discs and its lower edge is located low enough to shape a groove in the soil at the bottom of the unfinished furrow so that the bottom of the furrow has a V shape. It is into this V-shaped furrow bottom that a relatively a small quantity of starter fertilizer and evenly spaced seeds are deposited. Trailing rotating wheels or other similar devices press down on the soil surface and inwardly on either side of the furrow in order to close up the furrow.
The optimum planting process wherein seeds are planted in uniform straight rows, at a uniform depth, completely covered by properly compacted soil with starter fertilizer present in the soil immediately below the planted seeds is very difficult to achieve. Delivering small quantities of starter fertilizer to a zone immediately beneath each seed presents a difficult challenge. This is especially difficult because, in order position a liquid fertilizer tube near the bottom of a furrow is to also expose such a tube to wear and damage. Moreover, a fertilizer tube in close proximity to soil is susceptible to being plugged with dirt during a turn. Because of the extreme widths of modern seed planters, when a seed planter is turned at the end of each set of rows, the outboard planting units on the inside portion of the turn will actually reverse direction in the soil which will often cause the exposed discharge end of a liquid fertilizer tube to be clogged with dirt. This, in turn, leads to the non-uniform application of starter fertilizer and non-uniform emergence. Defining furrow walls that are not glassy but sufficiently fractured in order to crumble and collapse around the planted seeds when furrow closing pressure is applied is another difficult challenge. What is needed is a V-slice insert that facilitates the delivery of starter fertilizer to a zone immediately below the seed and which defines furrow walls which are more susceptible to collapse and crumbling for optimum seed coverage.